On this episode of the Eat Check, It's NCAA Championship Day, folks, time for you kinda win it all. Hopefully they won, because I'm doing this on a Saturday, and we still got our eyes on the NBA. In this episode, we get into the head coaching change in Charlotte, and then we turned to an amazing interview with the spo track genius himself, Keith Smith. It's Championship Monday, so Anthony, let's get right into it. No time to waste drop that
motherfucking beat that should be reh honored. So I spent the week of Phoenix, where I was lucky enough to attend the final four. I don't even know necessarily if I'll call it luck. I paid the money, right, paid the money, couldn't get a cred head and show. Apparently I missed the deadline by a solid month, even though like,
who the fuck you're doing that too? Anyway, I guess I'm not big enough for them to make a make a change for me anyway, So I paid the grand or whatever it was, and I will break down everything about the trip once the game ends tomorrow on the show, but for today, let's do a quick hitter We have not talked about this news yet. My man who came back from the dead is now back in the grave again. Steve Clifford, who was fired once before from the Charlotte Hornets,
was re hired. The two time head coach of the Charlotte Hornets has officially quote stepped down after the season and we'll move into a front office position the good old Brad Stevens. My first thought was another day, another day of dysfunctioning Charlotte, probably ending the Hornets hiring James Brego again. But then I read a tweet that argued, and I think, actually probably right, that the job is actually highly attractive because you've got a young player on
the verge of stardom and Brandon Miller. By the way, Brendon Miller Friday night was ten for ten from the field and five for five from three at halftime. You've got a really good big big in Mark Williams and a star superstar. The only thing holds them back is the injury bug in LaMelo Ball, who went healthy can give you twenty five, ten and eight a game, twenty five and ten a game, but twenty five, eight and ten. You know what I'm saying, he can get your rebounds two.
Most importantly, though, this team has new owners that means no more Michael Jordan, Frank Kaminski Shenanigans, and the past draft seems to show that there's hope for the future. Fortunately, they sucked this year as well. They had traded their twenty twenty four first round pick for Kai Jones, but since that pick was lottery protected, they will have both a first and a second rounder this year and better. Yet, currently that pick is the third pick overall, just one
pick worse than it was last year. So this team, after shedding a ton of weight and salary by trading Terry Rozier to the Heat for a twenty twenty seven first that was the twenty twenty seven first they were slating for the Damian Lillard trade and Kyle Lowry, who they then cut Gordon Hayrod to the OKC Thunder for Vassili Meichik tray Man, Dobby Spurton's and a pair of
second round picks. And finally they sent PJ. Washington in a pair of second round picks to Dallas for Grant William Seth Curry and a twenty twenty seven first round pick. They're loaded in five years. All in all in impressive trade deadline performance really, and since it looks like they're moving on from the problem of Miles Bridges in the offseason, I think this team is going to be in on full rebuild mode and it actually looks like they're going to do it the right way. They just gotta find
the right coach now. Apparently, wouldn't it be funny, Remember like Kenny Atkinson turned the deal down, what if he said yes this time around? Anyway, the Hornets are interviewing Denver's David Adelman, son of Rick Adelman, Sacramento's Jeordi Fernandez, who is a very hot commodity hot ticket head coach for Team Canada, Boston's Charles Lee, and Phoenix is Kevin Young. I love some Jordy Fernandez. I think he would be
awesome with this young team. As for Clifford, I mean, just a hilarious story, but I feel like he kind of got a raw deal. This was just not a franchise that he was going to be able to fix. And now he goes to a front office position which he probably makes more money in, So that's good. A lot of people think that the game has passed his defense versus philosophy by But he was pretty good for a team that could have easily fallen off of a
cliff after the various scandals involving PJ. Washington. I don't know if that was really a sca that was just like a thing, that was just like a funny instance. Remember Kai Jones went off the reservation. That was crazy. And then of course, obviously Milesbridge is just a fucking disaster, which is why he's getting kicked upstairs. They're like, yo, we're not kicking you out of the door, we're giving you a promotion. By all accounts, I think he's very liked.
He's a good guy, he has a sharp basketball mine, and he's gonna definitely help things from the front office perspective. But like, I cannot believe I'm about to say this, but am I gonna be interested in watching the Charlotte Hornets play basketball next year? I tell you what, tonight they were fun. I was like, wow, I think the Charlotte Hornets are playing better basketball right now, And then I looked and saw that they were one and nine. But it looks okay when you watch it on the court.
That remains They beat Orlando. That remains to be seen. But the truth is, if you're a Hornets fan kind of like Orlando a couple of years ago, you actually have something to be excited about for the first time in ages. All right, moving on the great Keith Smith from spow Track joined my other show at MGM in the Night, where I was joined by my co was Ryan Horbaugh. Bet MGM to night. Here's Monday through Friday
seven to eleven Eastern Standard time PM. Yeah, that's a real shift in most major markets and live on Twitch and YouTube. Keith gave us his weekly update on what's popping from around the league. So let's get right into it.
Keith Smith joins us right now here on bet MGM tonight. Keith, how you bet man? I'm doing good yet, so Keith, as we talk about pretty much like every week every other week, I'm pretty high on the Celtics for the third consecutive season. Bet them to win the NBA Finals at least bet them to win the Eastern Conference once again.
This year.
I had some concerns about New York the way that the Knicks were playing, But now with the Julius Randall news, you know your thoughts on the Knicks. They're ceiling the rest of the way this year. You know, we thought at least they could win a playoff series, maybe even get into the Eastern Conference Finals. What do you think this changes with the Julius Randall news that he's going to miss the rest of the season after right shoulder surgery.
Yeah, Lowers, they're ceiling a good amount. I was with you. I was watching the team kind of come together, and it was like, all right, they they defend, They've got enough offense. They have enough on ball creators. Because the big thing is you could be a good regular season offensive team, but if you're doing it more through a systematic approach, it's harder to pull that off in the playoffs.
When the same team is going to see you four to seven times over a two week period, they're just gonna start to lock in on what your tendencies are. So you need guys who you can throw them the ball and they create something. And the problem for the Knicks is it's kind of Jalen Brunson, that's it without Julius Randalls. So I'm afraid they're going to struggle some to be able to create enough offense. I think they're so scrappy and they're they're going to be a tough
out with whoever they play. But I thought they were a team that, yeah, they might have been able to make a run to the East Finals, and now I think there's they're going to be in a battle in the first round almost no matter who they play.
In the West, the Warriors all but knocked out the Houston Rockets from making the play in which Rockets were playing really well down the stretch. I am Keith simultaneously fast and sometimes appalled by Jalen Green's game. Ima Udoka called him out last night after losing to the Warriors, basically saying that the moment was too big for them,
that they look soft or scared. What do you think the future is for Jalen Green and maybe even Alprin Shangun and like, what do you think the next steps are for the Houston Rockets to continue to get better?
Yeah, I think kind of going through those. I think Shangun's the guy I feel most certain about it. I think we saw what he can be this year. I think he's in order of like all around good centers. I think it's jokich Is, you know, he's way above everybody else. Then you have Demonta Sebonus, a tier or two below, and then I think a tier or two
behind that is alprim Changoun. Like people said when he was drafted, you if you squit, you can see Nicola jokicch and people kind of laugh and said, oh, what a you know, ridiculous comparison, But you can't. He moves similarly. He doesn't really have, you know, great athleticism, but he gets a shot off, he gets his spot, good rebounder, great passer for the position. He can do a lot of things. I don't think he's ever gonna win MVP, He's never mind multiple MVPs, but I think he's a
good player. And then Jalen Green, it was a rough season because he was bad for a lot of the year. It looked like in a more structured team that had actual, real goals beyond hey, we're just going to roll the ball out and run up and down, he was really struggling. He didn't know how to play. I think in a lot of team concepts, you saw Fred van Vleet Dylan Brooks multiple times throughout the course of the year kind of getting on his case of hey, you got to get back, you got to be here, you got to
be there. Then it all kind of quick for him. So I think Jayalen Green's still an incredible talent, Like it's all there for him. So we'll see, and then for the Rockets as a whole, it's gonna be you did a bunch of additions last year last summer, I should say. Then you added Steven Adams to kind of give you a little bit more death, maybe another kind of guy who's a little bit more professional your front core.
They can really kind of help. So it's going to be adding one or two more pieces, hoping the kids, whether it be Shingoon or Green or Jabari Smith Junior or I'm still very high on grow a little bit. You took your step forward this year. Now the next thing is really growing, molding into a better team and being a contention beyond the first part of April really all the way through the season.
So the other team I want to ask you about was the Indiana Pacers because we've been going back and forth with the Bucks, especially the way that it's looked last week. The Pacers right now sitting in the sixth seed, you know, forty three and thirty four this season, but now with the Knicks being out, not really knowing what it is with the Calves, and then the Magic being so young. You know, do you think the Pacers are going to be a scary team in the East? Are
they still a couple of years away? Do you think?
Yeah? I think they're at least a year or two away. Their biggest problem is they don't play any defense, so you do see as the season has gone along and the games aren't as high scoring and it's free wheeling, they've kind of come back to earth quite a bit. That's why they're down in that sixth range instead of competing, you know, somewhere with maybe even the Bucks for number two, which looked like it might have been a thing earlier in the year. Because after Tyree Saliburtn got hurt, he
just hasn't been the same guy. Pascal Siakam's been good, but not great. I think trading Buddy Healed really hurt them because I think they did it out of, Hey, we have a chance to make this other deal where we're gonna move things in this direction, and we have Benedic Matherin, who should be able to be plugged right in and do his thing, but then he got hurt. So it's a team that's still pretty good. They could win a game or two because Halliburn is that good.
They could have a game where they are able to get the offense to go off. But I don't know, just the way they play defense, I don't think they're going to be overly competitive against the better teams in the league.
I just saw this today. There's some buzz in NBA circles that suggest that, barring a run to the NBA Finals, Donovan Mitchell will decline an extension and look elsewhere, and the Cavaliers are more likely than not to move him well before he can be a free agent. What are your thoughts and like, what are you hearing kind of about this situation? And maybe some places that would be interested in trading for him.
Yeah, I think we all knew when it kind of came to an end in Utah he was angling towards getting to New York or Brooklyn though those were where he really kind of wanted to be, and then the Knicks weren't. The Nets weren't in a position to trade from its time, and the Knicks weren't willing to give up everything, and then the Cavs kind of said, hey, why not, Like we've got this young core of Garyuscarland, Evan Mobley, Jared Allen that we feel pretty good about.
And I think they felt Donovan Mitchell can really lift us and he has to an extent, and they're they're better team than they were a couple of years ago. But I think now it's come down to they just didn't become that team. I think we all thought two years ago they're kind of a nice team. Last year they made it to the playoffs. You get that first experience through the postseason and you got beef. But now you're coming back stronger team. He added Max Strus, he
added some bench guys. You feel pretty good about everything, and then just injuries there. Every time you turn around, a different starter was out for this team and very rarely have been whole throughout the year. And I do think that's probably got Mitchell looking around wondering a little bit of all right, am I gonna lock in fully with this team? And I think you have some guys, especially when they hit that third contract, that they look at it and say, all right, first rookie scale contract
is what it is? You just sign it with the team that drafts you. Second deal, you're gonna be restricted free agents, so they've got all the power still the team does. If you're that good, they're gonna keep you no matter what. He might as well just take the money and go. Then that third contract that you start thinking, hey, I have some agency here. I can really push things
in a direction. And if he turns it down the max extension this summer, the Cavs really have to look at it and say, you know what, We're never gonna be able to offer the supermax because they're not eligible to do that because they trade it for him. So then what becomes is all right, if he turned down just a regular max, which is the absolute best week do for him as an extension, he probably doesn't want to be here, and at that point it serves them
best to look. I would expect again go hear the New York teams, but you're gonna see some other teams. You know, you could see Miami get involved because they're always involved. The Lakers are always involved like that with guys like that. But you could even see does a team like Orlando that really needs that one guard to kind of push them over the top, so they say, hey, let's go get to onom In Mitchel and see if
we could keep them here and keep them happy. So he's gonna have a pretty robust market, which should allow to keep cleaven to recoup some of what they gave up to get him in the first place.
Maybe even San Antonio because I know that Victor Winmenyama wants to start winning sooner than later. I did want to follow up another team in the East. It's like, we have high hopes for and they show us some good flashes and then they go on a losing streak. The Milwaukee Bucks fifteen and fifteen under Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers made one of the most absurd comments the other night in terms of why they're not playing well on
the road. He essentially, well, no, not essentially. He actually pointed out that his travel team he was take notes on them and that they're very disappointing. Like, what are you hearing? Because if I'm the players on the Bucks organization, I'm a little bit tired of my coach getting thrown throwing people under the bus.
Yeah, and it's it's one thing when it's the players, Like the players I think are used to that to some extent, What do you start talking about equipment managers and bus drivers and airplane pilots. I mean, all that's just ridiculous, and you know, look at it, and I will always with Doc. I think of the great job he did with Boston.
Uh.
People forget when they made the Kevin Garnett trade, they didn't have They had basically Garnett, Pearson Allen and the two young guys left in Perkins and Rondo. That was it. And then Daddy Age had to go get the rest of that bench in late July and August to fill out the rest of that team. And there wasn't a lot there. And Doc did such a good job kind of building that team and getting them to be a winner. And what was disappointing is with the Clippers he always
had an excuse. With the Sixers, he always had an excuse. Now he's coming up with all these excuses with the box And then I really do wonder, you know, how long is it going to be where the players are going to put up with it and the player is going to say, pay enough of this, like it's one thing for winning games? Then everything you put up with all sorts of stuff. But if you're not winning, you know, where are we going with this? And and then I do think some of it goes on the players too.
You can't be when you're trying to walk up the second seat in the conference. You cannot have back to back losses to the Wizards and the Grizzlies at this point the season. I don't care who's playing and not playing. It was funny. I saw a lot of Bucks fans, well Lillard, miss the Middleton lists this this game, well Grizzley. The Wizards fans don't want to hear anything about players being out, like they've had barely your whole rosters all seasons,
so they certainly don't want to hear it. And they were going to beaches. So it's it's just one of those things where they just can't seem to get out of their own way. They still aren't. They defended better now than they were earlier, but still not defending at a high leve. Well, it's just a very hard team to trust as we go into the playoffs.
Keith, We've still got about three minutes here. I guess like if you look at the award markets as far as betting, Jokic is most likely going to be your MVP. Everything's pretty much solved except for the sixth Man of the Year. Malik Monk's still the favorite. Minus won thirty five. Nos Reed's been playing really good. Milik Monk's been struggling a little bit. If you know, like where would you go?
There?
You got Norm Powell, Bobby Portis. Who do you think should win that award?
Yeah? I think it should be Malik Monk. Keven, though he's out for the rest of the season, I think he established that he has been absolutely unbelievable off the bench this year for the Kings that I think people still think of him as just a shooter and he's not. He's a great off the dribble score. He's also a very strong playmaker. They really gave me. Mitchell had kind of fallen by the wayside this year because they'd gone to three guard groups with Monk, Herder and Fox and
Keon llsp and mixed in there a little bit. So he I think it should be him. I have no problem with people showing some love to nos Reed. He's been very very good as well. And then Norm Polish, as you mentioned, has been excellent off the bench for the Clippers. I think Bobby Fornas is gonna suffer a little bit, you know, maybe unfairly because the team hasn't been as good as people thought. And I think there's a lot of teams tend to our voters tend to
punish players when the teams aren't as good. But yeah, I still think it should be Malie Monk got.
About forty five seconds. Keith just wanted to get your thoughts on Kawhi and Jamal Murray's injuries. How can concern should we be?
Yeah, I'm getting a little bit nervous, especially with those two guys. Like a lot of guys, We're starting to see some guys come back. Those two, there's a history of them missing time, and I know they keep saying it's not a big deal, they're going to be back. Michael Malone has said Jamal Murray is really close, So we'll see. I hope that Jamal Murray will be back to be okay. Kawhi I'm probably more concerned with because we've seen it. We've also seen the Clippers say it's questionably,
he's questionably, he's questionable. Then they get knocked out and then it's like ash, he was never coming back and he needs surgery. So hopefully that's not the case. Yeah, both those guys are back, because that changes I thinks quite a bit for both of those teams that all of a sudden, if those guys aren't there, that opens the door for timberwill Sunder, Maverick, Suns, a whole bunch of teams in the West.
Keith, thanks so much, man, you're the man enjoyed the games this weekend, Keith Smith, I appreciate you you for having me.
That's all the time that we have for this episode the Heat Check. Come back tomorrow for an on new episode, and check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes which drop unexpectedly. Like the Bucks in the Eastern Conference, they are fifteen and sixteen since stock Rigver's took over three losses in a row to Washington, Memphis in Toronto, three teams with fifty six combined wins, which is six
less than the Celtics. So, oh boy, holy shit, do not forget to follow the heat Check as we head down the stretch. That means download, that means subscribe, that means tell your friends. Even that reff that decided it was a good idea to call a moving stream with four seconds left in the Iowa Yukon women's basketball game. Tell them, yo, how can you decide a Final four game with that tiki takass call? When you get fired for incompetence, if you need something to cheer you up,
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